Family firm moved by ambition

Graham Kent . . . in the business for 58 years after joining his father in the company at the age of 15.
Photo: Nic Walker

by
Mark Fenton-Jones

A removalist business that originated as a carrying and cab business in country Victoria in the 1870s is expanding globally to provide a complementary suite of services for people moving between countries.

Graham Kent
, 72, executive chairman of Kent International Movers since 2000, is a fifth-generation member of the family in the business that he joined 58 years ago. In March, he handed the chief executive role to his son-in-law Tim Irwin, who was previously chief financial officer.

Kent’s father Keith formed KL Kent in 1946 following a hiatus after the business collapsed when his grandfather lost an arm in a lift accident.

Father Keith decided to rebuild the removal business and when Kent joined at 15, turnover was more than £8500 a year.

In the past decade, turnover has risen from $40 million to $80 million by gaining a greater share of the corporate moving market and expanding international business, which is more than 30 per cent of turnover. The business carries out about 36,000 removals a year.

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Kent and his brother Brian, who joined the business in 1953, took over running the company in 1960 because their father had to spend several years in and out of hospitals due to a war injury.

Soon after, the pair launched Kent’s first marketing campaign – they scoured newspapers for people moving house and rang them up.

“It worked," he says, adding he has door-knocked many people such as Ron Barassi, Sarah Murdoch and Bob Ansett.

Kent’s son Wayne, who works for Macquarie Bank, was born when Kent was 21 and is now a major shareholder. As a board member, he is also very involved in the strategic direction of the business.

During the 1990 recession Kent offered employees the option to knock on doors at weekends or be laid off. “They chose knocking on doors. No one was laid off and they got great results," he says.

Kent made the firm’s first tentative steps to expand offshore on a trip to Britain in 1978. The international service – now 40 per cent of the business – began.

In 2000 the firm won its biggest contract: to set up the beds and lounges at the Olympic Village in Sydney. Soon after, Brian retired and sold his share to his brother.

Six years later, as global removals competition heated up, Kent decided to change direction and provide a complete service for people moving offshore. The corporate development team expanded from seven to 20 people.

Before that, global competition had forced many firms to outsource non-core activities, but Kent wanted all services under the one roof.

These days the company also offers home search, orientation, school search, immigration and real estate services.

Kent has also started to respond to the expansion of global players such as Allied Pickfords, which has 600 offices in 40 countries.

Last September Hong Kong-based logistics firm Santa Fe Holdings, a division of Denmark’s East Asiatic Co, acquired Wridgways, the listed furniture removal company founded in Melbourne 118 years ago, in a $93.1 million deal.

Seven months later in April, Santa Fe acquired Interdean, which had been a partner for some years. Interdean has 48 offices with 1200 employees in 35 countries, lifting Santa Fe’s total to 120 offices in 50 countries.

Sante Fe said its group, including Interdean and Wridgways, “will continue to grow and expand in line with the needs of our clients".

Kent International now has eight branches in Australia and plans to expand in the next financial year, particularly in the mining sector where the company has considerable exposure. It is also a shareholder in Overseas Moving Network International which operates in 57 countries.

Faced with the competition, particularly the Wridgeways deal, Kent says “our challenge is to get a global footprint".

He flags that “further expansion will take place in the Middle East and parts of Asia-Pacific".

His international business model is to partner with similar companies that specialise within their geographic location. He expects the company will have to make significant investment in online web interface portals

“We’ve invested heavily in IT to do that, about $600,000 to $700,000, which is self-funded," he says. “The secret is to make it as easy as possible for customers to deal with us."